ButterCMS vs Substack

Compare ButterCMS and Substack for your content needs. Find out what actual users are saying about each product and which one is best suited for you!

ButterCMS
ButterCMS
Leading Content Management System (CMS) for Websites of All Sizes. Build SEO pages and mobile apps faster & easier with ButterCMS.
Substack
Substack
Substack is a user-friendly publishing platform for writers, enabling them to create newsletters and build a subscriber base while retaining full ownership of their content and mailing lists.

What Users Say

See what users who have used ButterCMS and Substack have to say about their overall experience with the product.

ButterCMS's Key Strengths

Read what users love about ButterCMS.

Substack's Key Strengths

Read what users love about Substack.

ButterCMS's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with ButterCMS.

Substack's Key Issues

Read what issues users have with Substack.

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What Marketers & Content Creators Say

Hear from the users who uses ButterCMS and Substack daily about their experience with the editors.

ButterCMS's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about ButterCMS's editor.

Substack's Editorial Experience Highlights

What marketers love about Substack's editor.

ButterCMS's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about ButterCMS's editor.

Substack's Editorial Experience Issues

What marketers dislike about Substack's editor.

Mobile Editing

Find out how the platforms handle the mobile-first experience for the new generation of workforce on the move.

ButterCMS:
Mobile-First Experience

ButterCMS supports a mobile-first experience optimizing content creation on mobile devices.

"A Mobile Content Management System (CMS) is a centralized data store that allows managing content for multiple platforms."
Source
"Butter makes CMS jobs faster with our intuitive content modeling and easy to integrate content API."
Source
"The Customizable WYSIWYG editor provides you with a content editing experience where the content resembles the appearance that will be displayed on your live site."
Source
"This centralized approach simplifies integration for developers, as they always deal with the same APIs and content models, regardless of the channel."
Source
Substack:
Mobile-First Experience

Substack has launched a mobile editor for creating posts directly on iOS and Android devices, offering essential functionalities.

"Today we’re launching a new mobile editor, which allows you to write and publish posts directly from the Substack app for iOS."
Source
"Publishing a new post is available on the Substack iOS and Android apps."
Source

Automatic Content Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic linking of related content to help user discover more content without additional manual effort from the marketer. This automatically create topical clusters of content and is essential for SEO.

ButterCMS:
No Automatic Content Linking

ButterCMS does not support automatic related blog linking for SEO; internal linking must be done manually.

"ButterCMS does not currently offer automated features for related content linking."
Source
"Blog posts are predefined pages with a pre-defined field that allows you to get a blog quickly connected with your site via built-in optimized SEO."
Source
"ButterCMS lacks an automatic process to link related blog posts; such linking must be handled manually."
Source
Substack:
No Automatic Content Linking

Substack does not support automatic related blog linking features; manual linking is required.

"If you'd like to share certain parts of a post or allow readers to jump to a specific section of a long post, try adding anchor links."
Source
"Recommendations are a Substack super ... However, I couldn't find evidence of automatic related content linking."
Source
"I was wondering if it is a good idea to create a substack and post my content on there as well and even link the substack post back to my main blog."
Source

Automatic CTA Linking

Find out if the platform supports automatic display of Call-to-Actions using AI to help users take actions that are relevant to the content they are reading.

ButterCMS:
No Automatic CTA Linking

ButterCMS does not support automatic CTA linking; marketers must manually assign CTAs in their content.

"ButterCMS lacks features for automatic linking of call-to-action blocks; users must manage placements manually."
Source
"The platform does not mention support for automatically linking call-to-action elements."
Source
"Marketers are responsible for manually selecting and placing CTAs in the ButterCMS blog engine."
Source
Substack:
No Automatic CTA Linking

Substack lacks built-in automatic CTA linking; users rely on external tools for automation features.

"Substack provides no automation tools at all; the author notes this is a primary reason users leave for competitors."
Source
"Substack lacks several critical features needed for effective email marketing, including automated email sequences."
Source
"Users discuss the absence of integrated automation features in Substack, noting their reliance on external tools."
Source

Comments

Find out if the platform supports comments from your users to improve user engagement. This is often a great way to collect feedback and user emails.

ButterCMS:
No Comments Supported

ButterCMS does not natively support commenting; users must integrate third-party tools like Disqus.

"Adding this comments feature and setting it up is really easy to do. We recommend using existing third-party tools for this as they're great for managing your blog comments."
Source
"Easily kickoff approval workflows, leave comments, assign owners and add due dates."
Source
Substack:
Comments Supported

Substack supports commenting on posts from both subscribers and non-subscribers, with moderation options available.

"Navigate to your publication's Settings and click on Community. Slide the toggle to enable comments."
Source
"You can now enable comments on your posts for anyone on your mailing list, even if they’re not a paid subscriber."
Source
"Writers can choose whether to allow comments from everyone or only paid subscribers."
Source

Multi-tenancy

Find out if the platform supports managing multiple clients or projects within a single account. This is useful for agencies, multi-client or multi-project scenarios.

ButterCMS:
Multi-tenancy Supported

ButterCMS supports multi-tenancy, enabling users to manage multiple client accounts from a single dashboard.

"Manage multiple brands and languages easily"
Source
"A multisite CMS is designed to handle a growing network of sites... ButterCMS allows you to create and manage multiple sites."
Source
"Built-in multi-tenant capabilities."
Source
Substack:
No Multi-tenancy

Substack does not support multi-tenancy, focusing primarily on individual writers and content monetization.

"Substack is designed for independent writers and does not offer multi-tenancy features."
Source
"Substack emphasizes individual monetization and audience ownership, lacking multi-tenant capabilities."
Source

What Developers Say

Hear from developers who've integrated and built on ButterCMS and Substack about their experiences.

Ease of Integrating ButterCMS:
Easy
Integration with ButterCMS is straightforward, especially for developers familiar with APIs.
Ease of Integrating Substack:
Medium
Integration with Substack is feasible but lacks robust features and direct integrations, leading to some workarounds.

ButterCMS's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with ButterCMS.

Substack's DX Highlights

What developers love about building with Substack.

ButterCMS's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with ButterCMS.

Substack's DX Issues

What developers dislike about building with Substack.

Content Modelling

Find out how developers model and manage their content with the platform with key highlights and limitations.

ButterCMS:
Customisable Content Types

ButterCMS supports content modeling with features like custom fields, page types, and collections.

"Easily manage all of your content types from one centralized dashboard. Butter makes CMS jobs faster with our intuitive content modeling."
Source
"ButterCMS is an easy to use tool for content management, allowing for seamless content modeling."
Source
"Butter allows you to create flexible page layouts and easily reorder them, supporting advanced content modeling."
Source
Substack:
No Customisable Content Types

Substack does not offer built-in content modelling features or custom content types.

"Substack offers limited customization, focusing more on content rather than design."
Source
"Directus allows you to create custom schemas, manage data, define roles & permissions for your organization."
Source
"Substack doesn’t allow customization for its newsletter formats, thus limiting content modelling."
Source

Custom React Components

Find out if the platform supports custom React components to go beyond the basic HTML components for content.

ButterCMS:
Custom React Components Supported

ButterCMS allows marketers to integrate custom React components into their content editor.

"Reusable React components are those components that are pure and predictable... Integrating React components with ButterCMS."
Source
"Now that we have launched our Components and Component Picker feature, we have a more efficient way to enable your marketers to insert custom HTML snippets..."
Source
Substack:
No Custom React Components Supported

Substack does not support custom React components directly in the content editor.

"Over the years, I’ve written and reviewed hundreds of React components for a $1.7B GenAI startup."
Source
"I wanted to display my Substack posts on my website instead of a subscribe link, so I created my own Substack feed component!"
Source
"A customizable React component renders the login page based on the user's UI settings."
Source
"The new components are both fully customizable AND robust."
Source
"I have used substackapi to achieve this Custom Embed Substack Signup Form."
Source

Full Text Search

Find out if the platform supports full text search across multiple fields to help users find content quickly.

ButterCMS:
Limited Search

ButterCMS supports full-text search but currently only via API without direct audio input capabilities.

"ButterCMS allows searching through created blogs and pages using keywords."
Source
"It is important to note that ButterCMS does not currently support the use of audio input when searching for data."
Source
"Full Text Search. Search for specific words or phrases within a document or across multiple types."
Source
Substack:
No Full Text Search

Substack's search functionality is weak, lacking full text search across all content and authors.

"From the Substack web inbox, readers can search keywords to find posts, publications, and people."
Source
"Substack search can’t find posts even when I know the exact title or URL. Search often can’t find people."
Source

Starter Kits

Discover starter kits and templates to help you get started with the platform.

ButterCMS:
Available

ButterCMS provides various starter kits for Angular, Django, Next.js, etc.

(Expand section to see a list of ButterCMS templates and starter kits.)

Substack:
Available

Substack offers various starter kits and templates for creators.

(Expand section to see a list of Substack templates and starter kits.)

Pricing & Plans

Compare the prices of ButterCMS and Substack.

ButterCMS's Pricing
Micro
$119 / month
- 3 Users
- 5 Pages
- 50 Blog Posts
- 50 Collection Items
- WordPress Migration
- 3 Roles
Startup
$239 / month
- Unlimited Users
- 50 Pages
- 300 Blog Posts
- 500 Collection Items
- Components
- 3 Roles
Small Business
$449 / month
- Unlimited Users
- 100 Pages
- 600 Blog Posts
- 1000 Collection Items
- 5 Locales
- Image Editor
- Priority Support
- 3 Roles
Enterprise + Agency
$0 / custom
- Enterprise-class SLA
- Workflows
- Multiple Environments
- Sites+
- Write API
- Locale Permissions
- Video Support
- Solution Engineers and Agency Partners
- Custom roles
Free Developer Plan
$0 / month
- For personal non-commercial usage and trying us out. Just add an attribution link back to us.
Substack's Pricing
Monthly Subscription
$5 / month
- Includes all posts for paid subscribers only
- Recurring payments processed via Stripe
- 10% platform fee
- 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fees on Stripe
Annual Subscription
$50 / year
- Includes all posts for paid subscribers only
- Recurring payments processed via Stripe
- 10% platform fee
- 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fees on Stripe
Founding Member Plan
$20 / month
- Optional tier for additional support
- All posts for paid subscribers

Compare with other technologies

Looking for a better alternative to ButterCMS & Substack? Try Wisp.
Wisp is the best solution for blogging. Try it free today!